Ten Ways to Prevent Affluenza

As with lottery winners and athletes who are in danger of spending significant portions of their new-found wealth in an instant, children who were raised with wealth must be properly prepared to handle affluence and their inheritance wisely

Older generations must be intentional to guard against the development of affluenza in children of all ages.

Here are 10 tips to help clients accomplish this elusive goal.

1. Reality Check: Preventing affluenza starts with discipline. This includes enforcing consequences when the child breaks rules and giving responsibilities such as chores in early childhood. Each shows that there are real consequences for one’s actions and that life requires hard work and accountability, regardless of status and wealth. Giving children duties creates opportunities for them to feel accomplished when those duties are fulfilled. It also establishes a pattern or habit of personal responsibility. Often it is with these struggles that real personal growth takes place.

2. Better to Give than Receive: Involve children in philanthropic activities and have them volunteer for a charitable organization of their choice. This provides children with a genuine sense of what life is truly like for the majority of the community which is less fortunate. As a result, it develops a profound appreciation for the opportunities they are receiving and, further, what their inheritance can bring in the future if managed properly. Prior to their earning years, children can often better understand the sacrifice of giving time, as they haven’t yet had the privilege to make money or manage their livelihood or lifestyle. Hours in a day, on the other hand, working selflessly for the benefit of others, feel very real to them.

3. The Most Important Things in Life Are Not Things: Informed families derive enjoyment from activities that do not require buying the latest items or spending a significant amount of resources, but stresses the value of relationships and celebrate personal achievement. The amassing a great deal of wealth should not be viewed as an end in itself or essential to achieving happiness. Therefore, involve children in activities that create enjoyment but aren’t driven by the payment of money, and instead require commitment of time and personal effort, such as sports. School activities and undertakings that build relationships in the community are very important.

4. Patience Is a Virtue: Require children to save for things they wish to purchase. This teaches the value of money, self-control and delayed gratification. It also leads to a much deeper appreciation for the items earned. Postponing gratification builds character, discipline and fortitude in children, and it creates strength for managing relationships with others. Meaningful relationships require each of these personal traits.

5. Knowledge Is Power: Enroll children in basic, age-appropriate financial literacy classes. It is a good investment in a child’s future and will help them learn to manage the money they earn and their family inheritance. Spend the time to teach children to protect themselves first from themselves, before protecting themselves from others.

6. No Substitute for Hard Work: Beginning in high school, especially during the summertime, encourage children to secure employment or start their own businesses to earn resources. This imparts the meaning of hard work, the importance of being responsible and accountable and the pride of ownership in dollars earned. In affluent families, travel and other enrichment activities, including participation in sports events, can make it difficult to consistently integrate the weekly responsibilities of a summer job or other activities during the school year, which often are the most enriching lessons of all.

7. Word to the Wise: Identify advisors that can be trusted to guide children once their inheritances are received, but these individuals should be introduced while your children are adolescents. The value of having these advisors in their lives should be covered as well. Concepts can be integrated modestly regarding the management of family assets. It is an iterative process; a 14-year old may not fully appreciate the value of the family advisor in the same way that a 20-year old would. That said, at a very early age, make it clear that a child must come to trust their established and proven professional relationships.

8. Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail: Develop a plan for significant assets to be passed in a shielded way. Create goals for the orderly process of wealth transfer, and outline what resources should be allocated and what vehicles should receive them. Move assets to be passed to children into protected entities first to safeguard them, and then communicate to the children at a later date that the assets exist—eventually let them know the size of those assets. As we move to guard assets from others, think of it as a gradual process instead of a “wholesale immersion” of the children into the family finances. That said, fearing children will find out too soon is a reason why too often people fail to protect the assets and themselves. As a child learns more about their interest, teach them to be more active in its management and protection rather than spending it.

Include requirements to pay off any debt, calculate income and living expenses, and create a realistic budget.

Encourage the child to invest and track assets received. Portfolios must compound to outperform inflation, key to avoiding dissipation of the protected assets. The assets must also be diversified to avoid concentration in just a few positions, which can lead to dramatic losses if the concentrated bet fails.

Consider putting a temporary freeze on making significant decisions regarding the assets; this can allow time for the child to think through their situation and avoid making monumental mistakes due to impatience or panicky decisions with their inheritance.

9. Know When to Say No: Children should always be selective in their choices of friends. It is simply unavoidable that certain friends may be attracted to the lifestyle that a child enjoys rather than the quality of the child’s character. As children grow, part of their decisions regarding their friends might be: “Is this person or group spending time with me because of my family’s affluence? Do they support the values we promote as a family?” An example of a red flag could be if a child is asked or is presumed to pay for common items when they are out with others.

10. Preparation Is the Key to Success: Create or update estate planning documents. The best laid plans are irrevocably undermined if parents pass away before completing the mission of ensuring that their children are ready to accept the inheritance. Delivering a gift in a protective vehicle is as important as delivering the gift itself.

Not only create trusts and protective partnerships, but be prepared to amend your Will to reflect any new situation that, if otherwise ignored, could affect your child’s growth and progress within the family. If there is a demonstrated weakness with social or financial matters, for example, this will require further maturation.

Setting up a trust for a child offers him an opportunity to exercise the wisdom you have provided from a very early age with the protection against wrongful, unanticipated attacks. Have a co-trustee serve with the child well into adulthood. The trustee’s job is not to give the child a fish, but rather to teach him to fish.

As Warren Buffet once said, “A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.”

According to American author Mignon McLaughlin, “There are a handful of people whom money won’t spoil….” Do you think your children are among them? From over 25 years working with wealthy families, we’ve learned that older generations must be intentional to guard against the development of affluenza in children of all ages. As with lottery winners and athletes who often squander significant sums of cash, children who see an influx of assets may mishandle what they have been given without proper preparation.

The term “affluenza”, also known as sudden wealth syndrome, is a portmanteau of the words “affluence” and “influenza.” It is typically characterized by a lack of motivation or a sense of entitlement among those who have inherited large amounts of money.

During a conference call with clients, McManus & Associates Founding Principal John O. McManus recently shared his thoughts on the 10 preventative measures against affluenza below.

1. Discipline Reality Check
2. Better to Give than Receive
3. Money Can’t Buy Happiness
4. Patience Is a Virtue
5. Knowledge Is Power
6. No Substitute for Hard Work
7. Word to the Wise
8. Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail
9. Know when to Say No
10. Preparation Is the Key to Success

In the eyes of the legal and financial world, an 18th birthday represents a major shift. Motley Fool Contributing Writer Michele Lerner’s latest DailyFinance story, “Parents: Are You Legally Ready for Your Kids to Be Adults?” utilizes tips from McManus & Associates to show families steps that should be considered when a child turns 18.

Navigating the terrain with life insurance trusts for child beneficiaries can be difficult, particularly when dealing with a special needs trusts for children that will likely never be on their own. Insure.com recently called upon McManus & Associates Founding Principal John O. McManus for guidance on trusts, “inherently complicated instruments” according to the story’s reporter Ed Leefeldt.

The article, straightforwardly titled “Life insurance trusts for child beneficiaries,” explains that life insurance companies often won’t pay the death benefit of a life insurance policy to a minor until he or she turns 18 unless a trustee or guardian has been named. Additionally, children may even face “estate taxes after a death, while the assets could be tied up in probate court” – trusts, however, ensure that life insurance money is “distributed according to your wishes, without delay.”

Trusts are also a useful tool for another reason. According to McManus:

A trust can also “protect children from themselves,” says John McManus, founder of an estate-planning law firm based in New York City. “If, at 18, a child gets it all, that could be a massively destructive injection of money,” he warns. Instead, the money can be earmarked for health, education or — with the help of a trustee — a lifetime trust.

The article suggests a revocable trust for those of average wealth, “which can be changed and/or revoked if necessary.” Of note: Sometimes you can simply write the name of the trustee on the beneficiary line of your life insurance policy, but always check with your life insurance company to make sure. For the wealthy, an irrevocable trust may be the best choice.

From the article:

This type of trust takes a bunch of assets, often including a life insurance policy, and “tosses them over the compound wall,” says attorney McManus. In effect, you create a separate corporation to manage them.

As explained by Leefeldt, an irrevocable trust needs a lawyer’s support; assets put in this trust can’t be taken out, regardless of how much one’s situation changes.

To learn how you can allow for changes in status when you create the original trust document (e.g., more kids, divorce, or a special needs child), check out the article in full. And to get help with the ins and outs of life insurance trusts for children and other loved ones, call 908-898-0100 to talk to the McManus & Associates team. Answers are a phone call away.

The New York Times today published an article with the headline “Growing Up With A Trust,” written by well-known “Wealth Matters” columnist Paul Sullivan. The story appeared online and in print, as well, on page F9 of the publication’s New York edition.

McManus & Associates worked hand-in-hand with Sullivan on this story, both in facilitating a conversation with one of our clients who shared insight on an anonymous basis and in providing expertise on preparing heirs for inheritance. From the article:

Steve, whose wealth was earned in financial services rather than inherited, is still working out a plan with his wife for telling their three sons about their inheritances. He asked that his name be withheld because he did not want his neighbors in the New York area to know about his money.

In his 40s and retired for more than a decade, he appears to be a model client for any trust and estate planner: he has already put more than $10 million in various trusts. “He’s a thoughtful, meaningful guy, and he has more time than our normal client,” said John O. McManus, his lawyer at McManus & Associates.

He is proud of the provisions written into the trusts for his children, which will keep them from having full access to the money until they are 35. Yet, though he has not done so, talking to his sons about his wealth is also important, even though all three are not yet 10.

Top AV-rated Attorney John O. McManus was happy to weigh in on this important topic, because the firm is committed to helping its clients transfer not only assets, but also family values. As discussed in the piece, conversations with beneficiaries about wealth are part of an ongoing process, not just a one-time event. Through the creation of a Family Mission Statement, McManus & Associates can help you initiate these critical discussions and best prepare your heirs for a productive life filled with success that positively impacts society.

McManus & Associates is ready to talk you through this challenging, yet important process. Give our office a call at (908) 898-0100 to get started.

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